Ad terrorem

Q649 Baroness Cohen of Pimlico: It seems to me that, at least on behalf of all the over- the-top services, the power for UK CSPs to collect your stuff as it goes over them is actually not useful. Would that be fair? So one then asks oneself, “Why is it in the Bill?”. Is there any evidence you can see to suggest that it is a negotiating position for the Home Office to say to you, “Look, we’ll claw it off by DPI”, even if you really know that they cannot? I am asking you only to speculate about why the Home Office should want this power, because it is not obvious from the answers to your questions.

Simon Milner: I think you have had the Home Office here to provide evidence on understanding quite what the thinking is behind that. As you say, it may be part of their negotiating armoury when it comes to discussing an order with a company such as ourselves, or others at this table.

Baroness Cohen of Pimlico: It is, in short, ad terrorem.

Simon Milner: Your Latin is better than mine.